Friday, March 13, 2015

Herbal Medicine and its Controversies

Across the country, millions of people hold various thoughts on Herbal medicine. Some claim that there are no scientific mechanisms behind herbal medicine, while others used it when they were not satisfied with western medicine. Many might think that only Easterners use herbal medicine as Westerns have their own medicine. However, almost 80% of the people all around the world have used this therapy. There’s no separation between the two, for a combined therapy is most effective. Due to the high percentage, it can be an indication of its beneficial usages. However, there are many individuals who have yet to experience herbal medicine because of its lack of scientific explanations as to how they are helping the body.

Gorski mentioned in an angered tone about how Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is so personalized that it is hard to perform clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of the therapy. Personalized medicine in TCM prescribes different herbal combinations and dosages for different patients according to their sickness. Since it is hard to conduct a clinical trial for TCM, instead of shutting down TCM as a possible therapy, scientists can observe the treatment in other ways. A possible way to determine the effectiveness of TCM is through retrospective studies. In this case, scientists can look at the effects of the patient after he or she has taken the treatment and compare it with another patient who did not take TCM in his or her therapy. In some cases, it is hard to determine the effects of TCM since most of the time, it is taken in conjunction with Western Medicine.

Lu mentions in his article that most people combine the usage of TCM with Western medicine. The result? As opposed to Gorski, Lu determined that while Western medicine treats the infection or illness, TCM are used to improve on its treatment while also decreasing its side effects. While Gorski passive aggressively undermines the effectiveness of TCM solely based on its unclear scientific mechanisms, many have seen positive results with the addition of TCM. According to Table 1, there is a list of herbs that Lu had complied to denote each herb’s benefits. TCM is used to treat a wide range of illnesses from AIDS to diarrhea.

Westerns have tried to purify an herb to one chemical compound to see its effect on the disease. As Gorski suggests, there are many compounds in an herb and its medical abilities cannot be explained in that one ingredient. Herbs work together to create a holistic effect. Without the combination of these herbs, it is hard to see any medical benefits with just one ingredient. Of course, I am not trying to say that these combinations only lead to benefits. Many herbs, if combined in a different way may result in toxicity of the body and become very harmful, which explains why TCM can sometimes be unpopular. Herbal medicine effects are so different for every human that it is skeptical for patients to indulge in this therapy, just because of the risk of toxicity. For example, Lu describes both the benefits and detriments of the herb, ginseng. It has antibiotic effectiveness, but it can also increase blood pressure, which is why it may be very dangerous for a patient to intake the ginseng before a surgical procedure. Therefore, herbal medicine should be thoroughly understood before prescribing it to patients.

Gorski did not mention the reasons why some patients only intake herbal medicine in some parts of the world. He did not point out that herbs are much more assessable and cost-effective that those tested Western drugs. In this sense, it is easy to see why herbal medicine is so popular even though it may not be understood. He did mention, however, that TCM is widely used because it has been around for thousands of years. Thus, he believes that TCM is more suspicious than Western medicine because, in ancient history, there was no advanced knowledge of illnesses and its medication. However, I think if the therapy had been passed down from generations to generations, then it should hold some beneficial value if it is still in use today. Nonetheless, it should have even more value than modern drugs because the herbal medication had been effective for many generations.

The last aspect that I want to talk about is Gorski’s language in writing his article. In many sentences, he used the word “woo” to describe herbal medicine, in general. Woo is used to describe pseudoscientific explanations on a topic which, in this case, is TCM. To the reader, it is a word that completely diminishes the importance of the subject, which I thoroughly disagree. TCM is very significant in many lives across the world. It is not only a medical therapy, but it is part of a nation’s culture. In using woo to describe TCM, Gorski essentially criticizes Eastern countries. Although Gorski had some great points as to why he does not believe in TCM, there also many contradicting arguments that can be made to support it.

13 comments:

I similarly think that traditional herbal medicine is an important medical practice; however, I think it is important to mention that traditional medicine does not just encompass herbal medicine. Other important types of traditional medicine include acupuncture, chiropractic medicine, yoga and tai chi, spiritual therapies, etc. Although there may currently be a lack of quantitative evidence for traditional medicine, it is important to recognize the weight these medical processes have around the world.

I believe in the use of herbal and traditional medicines because I come from a family that highly values these approaches to being healthier.

However, when it comes to herbal medicine, I am more inclined to take a prescription from a doctor because often it a well-studied and FDA-approved drug whereas herbal medicines do not have to undergo these tests and studies. I like to know that the things I'm consuming are safe.

I don't agree with the total bashing of traditional medicines that you describe in this article as there are proven benefits to different types of traditional medicines. However, I do understand the resistance towards this type of therapy. As you explain, it is difficult to perform clinical studies due to the inconsistencies with prescribing. With this in mind, a possible option would be to have the scientists work with the traditional medicine doctors to hear how they go about prescribing and treating patients. Although this too is less scientific than regular trials, it could perhaps give insight into traditional medicines that can lead to clinical trials in the future.

I am a big believer in traditional medicine, and I do believe that it is proven to be beneficial in many scenarios. That being said, one thing that I found interesting was when combined with Western medicine, TCM seemed to decrease the side effects of the specific treatment. It could be a possibility that the TCM is enacting some sort of placebo effect in the patients, especially considering that herbal medicine has many unclear medical impacts. Patients may be getting better or showing decreased side effects because they simply believe that the TCM is helping, when it could potentially not have that much of an effect. Just something to think about.

You mentioned that herbal medicine affects each human in different ways. The same could be said for pharmaceutical drugs, as each medication could have a different impact on each individual and the severity of side effects will vary. There are some similarities between herbal medicine and pharmaceutical drugs. Both can be prescribed by a Western or traditional doctor based on previous anecdotal evidence; if one drug works effectively for treating one condition, then the doctor will be more likely to use that same drug to prescribe another individual with the same condition. However, traditional herbal medicine can be seen as an issue because of the inconsistent dosages; each herb consists of different amounts of the chemicals. There are similarities and differences between traditional and Western medicine and the overall message should be that we should not completely close off the idea of traditional medicine, as they can have the ability of producing therapeutic effects as well.

Many drugs have been discovered from herbal remedies that have worked in the past. Researchers collect plants and herbs and break them into their chemical compounds to try and isolate an effective compound that can be found in a drug. This alone should show the value of herbal treatments- these ancient treatments are the types of plants that drug companies are honing in on to create "new" treatments.

Herbal medicines definitely have the potential to provide a form of treatment to areas of the world that don't have the access to western medicine, or believe that these traditional methods are more effective. However, for the sake of society as a whole, we must treat these traditional medicines as equals with western treatments. To not test them, and to not attempt to improve on them could lead to an even further cultural divide between those who believe in western medicine and those who believe in more traditional methods. Both help save lives, and the mistreatment of traditional methods as alluded to in this blog seems inappropriate for society.

I understand the draw towards traditional medicine because of its seemingly natural outlook, however I am also skeptical because, just as you mentioned in your blog, it is very hard to test the effectivity of the method. Therefore it is hard to trust it completely. Although, I hope that they continue to do retrospective studies and figure out if this is a reliable method. Great post!

Personally I'd rather take a drug from a doctor that has been approved by the FDA. These drugs have been scientifically tested and it's effects are better documented than these herbal remedies. I think more scientific research has to be done on these herbal medicines to better understand its effect. Although it's difficult to completely trust something from outside our own culture and scientific view, it is a cost effective alternative and is likely better than nothing when it comes to poorer countries and communities. I would like to have a better understanding of them before I endorse it, but I am cautiously optimistic about their positive effects for poorer parts of the world.

I agree with Jack on this. I very much like to know that the drugs that I am taking have been tested in a lab and analyzed many times over to ensure safety. That being said I like the idea of incorporating TCM with western medicine if only to get people to continue to take western medicine to ensure their health.

I think it's interesting that there are new herbal medicines coming into the market. I also think it's cool that many of these herbal medicines are all-natural and do not require artificial synthesis. Like some of the comments above, I wouldn't want to take it unless I had confirmation that it is safe, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to implement some sort of testing system.

I think its really interesting that how much of the world uses herbal medicine. I really found it crazy to think that 80% of the world have at least you this form of treatment once. I did not realize how big of the market herbal medicine was.